"What [the Westerner] defends, at bottom, is the purity of his own image - in fact his honor. That is what makes him invulnerable. When the gangster is killed, his whole life is shown to be a mistake, but the image the Westerner seeks to maintain can be presented as clearly in defeat as in victory: he fights not for advantage, and not for the right, but to state what he is, and he must live in a world which permits that statement. The Westerner is the last gentleman, and the movies which over and over again tell his story are probably the last art form in which the concept of honor retains its strength."
- Robert Warshow, from his 1954 essay, "Movie Chronicle: The Westerner"
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